The film industry has lost another true and great talent with the passing of Wilfred Brimley. While he only appeared in a few horror films, if I saw his name in the opening credits, I knew he was going to be interesting to watch. I think I first became aware of him in the Paul Newman film Absence of Malice (1981) because that played at the theater I worked at. So while it wasn’t a film I would normally see, I got to see a lot of it during the working hours, so I remembered his character. And then came John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982). It threw me for a bit with him without his mustache, but his voice is just as recognizable as this facial hair. As well as his incredible performances. In 1985, he appeared in another favorite of mine, Remo Williams, which I was so bummed they never made more of those.

Brimley was definitely not the Hollywood type, which he would be the first to tell you. But he was true to the core. He had a reputation that he could be slightly difficult to work with but his results were usually gold. In the film Cocoon (1985), the scene where he is telling his grandson goodbye in a roundabout way, that was all ad-libbed. While never having any professional acting training, he told the Associated Press about this method, saying “Basically, my method is to be honest. The camera photographs the truth – not what I want it to see, but what it sees. The truth.”

I had the opportunity to see him a couple of times at some conventions and hearing his Q&A’s were always a treat. Being a very witty man, sometimes his comments could come off the wrong way, but he had nothing but respect for those that he worked with. We have definitely lost an immense talent with his passing. We have plenty of moments of his brilliance committed to film so we can always go back and see just how good he was. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family at this difficult time.